I don't mind the overlays and having the whole screen shake during some modes is a nice touch. That said, the clips look sharp and I don't see why they couldn't be larger.

I do think ball times are going to be longer on these games then any other Spooky game to date. Seven shots from the lower flippers feed to the inlanes. That's neither good nor bad, but don't expect this to be that brutal game that punishes you over and over. I'd actually like to see the Pigmon modes incorporated further into the rules. Shooting down the target bank to start the modes is challenging, in a good way. It feels a bit like lowering the shield in Attack From Mars. Only instead of continuing to attack the flying saucer you start a battle, similar to Deadpool. Those are two of my favorite games, so that's a good thing.

Can you advise if Bemular battle shots are only on the upper playfield or are there any shots for his mode on the main playfield? Thanks for the vids.

I appreciate you sharing your first impressions. It is interesting because on Halloween, Spooky was looking to find out more ways to incorporate content on screen. They said most of the clips were played at the beginning and at the completion of modes. They thought that would be good but they realize that the game is harder to complete modes and players are not seeing the video content. UM looks to have a decent amount of video content. I like the center screen with the character art flanking it during battles. I still think there is some room for improvement regarding game stats like score, ball in play etc.

Yes, I noticed the screen says combo the purple shots in this mode. Where are the purple shots? I see no purple shots on the main playfield. Maybe you are right - its only upper playfield shots for this battle. THanks for the upload, so nice to see a new play video.

That's the mode I understand the least at this point. I know to start the battle it's just the upper playfield, but I'm almost certain once the mode starts it also involves the lower playfield. It might have something to do with combos on the white shots. I like the idea of using the science patrol "meteor badge" shots for the Bemular mode. In the episode, they fought a good portion of that battle with there jet and submarine. Thematically that would make sense. It also could be interesting to allow the players to collect lit "meteor badge" shots during non-mode gameplay to build towards some unique reward. I think they could so something fun with the orange and white colors of the science patrol.

The camera does a terrible job picking up purple inserts unless I zoom in. They look white, but it's not an issue in person. Also the "combo the purple shots" sounds like the Ragon mode, not Bemular. With that said, as I mentioned earlier when you stack modes it can be difficult to know exactly what shots are for each mode. Having a consistent color for the Pigmon modes would help because right now you are either shooting purple, green, or white shots. If the modes weren't stackable that would be fine, but when stacked the display focuses on what you need to do to complete the larger modes of Balton, Bemular, and Jirahs.

PS: There is nothing wrong with the current code, but these are just some areas where some polish can make it better. We already know that Halloween will have the first major update followed by Ultraman.

Did the plastic that broke have a protector on it, or was that one left without one? I've literally never had a plastic with a protector break, so that seems a bit odd.

Thanks for sharing the game and noticed that too. Layout wise nothing on playfield appeared too dangerous at this point.

It's the light defuser, not a normal plastic.

Ah okay, I just barely caught the comment in the video, still half asleep LOL. Thanks!

No worries. Pending how many are printed the best factory fix would probably be to flair out the connection, as shown below. I think that would add a lot more strength. It's not a major issue as the connection point is hidden behind the fencing of the middle playfield. Worst case I'll piece it back together. and maybe add a second layer over the top.

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For those of you in or around Ohio looking to play Ultraman mine just arrived and it will be set up on location today at
Southland Lanes
6800 W 130th St
Middleburg Heights, OH 44130

I am hoping to have my Halloween around Halloween time

We're streaming UMCE #6 from Lynn's Arcade in Seaside, CA next week. The plan is Tuesday. I will post more details as things firm up. This will be a marathon stream with unboxing, a closer look, gameplay and league night - all at the same time. The channel is https://twitch.tv/dri374 I'll leave you with a teaser...
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Exciting!

Look forward to the stream.

rd

Wow lpeters82 FANTASTIC job going through the game and it's so awesome seeing it up close, I caught myself with my mouth wide open several times staring at the screen with my readers on, . See, this is exactly what I was looking for in a game, something different!! I'm in love with the theme intergration, the art, the touches like the Bin Furuya signature, wow. To me this is a TRUE Collector's piece.. so excited for it! Wish Spooky could crank these out just a little bit quicker? but so spoiled are we.. Congrats to everyone waiting for one.

I'm almost....ALMOST....regretting not going CE. Almost. If I didn't have a HVAC to pay for before Ultraman, I'd probably be really pissed at myself at this point.

Because of the wait, or is the purple growing on you?

It's blue...atleast that's what my eyes tell my brain.

I can definitely see it being subjective. I see purple and some folks that have seen the game at shows have said purple too. Looks blue in some pics and purple in others.

I don't know what color it is...I'm still going with Periwinkle... but yeah. I don't think it looks as bad as my initial impression after seeing multiple pictures of it. Don't get me wrong, I'll still be happier with the black heavy chromatic flake stuff, so no regrets there. I just want to play the game!

The signature plaque in most cases I would treat as a pure novelty and not worth much at all, but honestly.....being able to get Bin Furuya to sign the plaques for these is a big nerdy win. I'm definitely a little bit jealous of that, and I'm not a signatures guy at all.

Agree on that. They didn't announce that prior to the sale. It might have pushed me over to the CE camp. Definitely prefer the BSE armor though. Was very cool to get his signature on the game.

This might take awhile to upload, but here is another gameplay video.

Trying to do mystery math from the posts by SpookyLuke, I am hoping to hear from Morgan this week or maybe next week on my order as it is #56.

I would think you’re getting close! I’m 463 so I think I have a bit lol. Godzilla should be here to a similar time as yours so that will hold me over

Ok, things have firmed up a bit. I hope to see you Tuesday on https://twitch.tv/dri374!

lynns-ultra-promo (resized).jpg

In person the CE armor is definitely blue.

Thanks for the video. It feels like there is a lot of downtime waiting when you drain the upper upper playfield when battling Jirahs. I guess there is no way Spooky can speed up the lifter mech?

Most of that waiting is letting the ball work it's way from the upper upper playfield to the subway system. Once the ball reaches the lifter there is little delay. When the ball reaches the opto in the subway you have the normal warnings followed by the activation of the servo. This might be a "play better" situation. This delay is only present between the start of Jirahs and completing the first battle.

If they can figure out how to stage balls then this problem can be solved.

Seems a software guided sequence that involves the operator/player shooting a ball into the scoop would be required at startup.

Once the game detects the correct number of balls queued up it would reset and be ready to play.

I can't see any other way to do it unless you ship with balls in the subway from the factory and that's probably a bad idea.

.

Or actually I did think of another way to do it. It's just a software setting "queue balls in trough?" and the operator has to make sure they've put the balls in there. Then the game will always operate that way unless you move it and take the balls out.

Seems simple enough right? Let's hope they do something because keeping the balls flowing at a high rate will increase the fun I'm sure.

Or, just have the software serve an additional ball from the shooter lane after a ball is situated on either side at the lifter. STTNG has a complicated set of optos and diverters in the subway to enable ball staging. This game has little to none of that. It's going to be a bit more complicated, and quirky to deal with. Multiball will almost always guaranteed clear out the lifters, and with a ball needing to be re-staged any time they get cleared out, could see a lot of balls coming from the shooter lane.... be careful what you wish for.

Personally, I'll take the slower cycle time over an extra 5k balls being served from one of the most wear-prone areas of a pinball machine, so if they never get around to staging...no skin off my back.

Yes and no. The time it takes for the ball to return to play, once it's in the subway is minimal. Where there is a delay is when you lose the ball on the upper playfield. From there the ball travels from right to left across the upper playfield. Then it falls down to the middle playfield. Since there is little to shoot for on the middle playfield, when you have Jirahs started, you have to let the ball fall down from the upper left to lower right, then across to the lower left where the ball falls down into the subway. From there it's a direct path to the servo lifter. No single one of these steps is a big deal, but when you combine them all it is a bit of a wait. Staging a ball would only skip the final step, since there are three additional pathways off of the middle playfield that don't lead to the subway. I'm just not convinced staging balls isn't going to make things more confusing for most players. The way it is currently programmed balls entering one of the scoops always return to the inlanes. If staging occurs some will come from shooter lane and some will come from the inlanes. I guess if they can make it happen it's not going to hurt, just give the operators the option to select if they want staging on or off.

Always a great way to start the week!

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Number 43. Nice!

Butter?

I'm not too concerned about them staging balls or not, but Rick & Morty handles this exact scenario very easily. You can either load a ball manually in the portal before you boot the game up, or it'll just "steal" the first one that gets shot in there during a game. It plays an appropriate audio line ("Let me adjust my balls quick, Morty") and you get a new ball from the shooter lane. No big deal, if you know what's going on it makes sense and if you don't know the game well you don't really question it.

I agree this should be the way to do it. Seems pretty simple.

No butter.

Wonder what Number they are on Halloween games.

Anyhow almost 1/2 there for this guy. ( Order up...... #43 - no may... no fries.. )

I’ve got an Ultraman on order and am looking forward to getting it sometime next year. My one concern is the sound every time the ball hits the slings at the bottom of the playfield. Is there a way to reduce the frequency of how often that sound is produced. The sound fits in well with the theme but may be too much of a good thing. What do owners think? Does the sound get irritating?

Your mind will just block it out after awhile. I thought my Houdini would be irritating with women giggling every time the slings went off and I didn't even notice it eventually.

I couldn't even tell you want the sound is, so it hasn't been an issue for me.

Luke has already mentioned a number of times that they will add ball staging at the left lifter in a future update. I'm sure it will work the same as R&M, adding a ball from the shooter lane when necessary.

Update: Apparently I'm wrong here and Spooky has not implemented ball staging at the lifters and it's currently low priority. Very disappointing.

They need to replace the slings sound. In the words of Morrissey, That sound will make “A shy, bald, Buddhist reflect and plan a mass murder”

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Surprised these haven't been posted here yet. Great unboxing and stream happened today. Here are the two videos.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1161053264

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1161139223

Congrats! Mine arrived today as well, will inbox it on Saturday. Going to be awesome.

Congrats. Want to see what kind of email you are using to inbox a pinball machine.

That's because you were talking over it.

It was actually your video where I really noticed the sling sound. I, too, would like the ability to disable it at the very least. I commend Spooky for staying true to Ultraman assets & sounds, but can see this particular sound getting irritating after a while. I believe it is also the same sound for the scoop eject.

Sling sound effect was one of my criticisms when I played it at Allentown. I know it’s from the show but it is really annoying. Seems like other people agree.

Sorry. I big part of my job is running youth sports, so talking though actions is a bit of a habbit. I also tend to watch Bowen's tutorial videos, so that is a bit of the style that I emulate on camera. Just wish I could better emulate his gameplay.

Does Pinball Browser work on Spooky games for changing sounds?